Snakes in Australia found to have rare fungal disease
Vets in Australia are recording snakes suffering from a rare fungal disease. A coastal carpet python was brought to a wildlife hospital in South-East Queensland in 2024, suffering from damaged scales, crusted lesions all over its body, and a fungal infection that they could not explain.
Results from skin tests revealed snake fungal disease known as Ophidiomyces ophidiicola. The gungal pathogen is linked to declines in snakes in other parts of the world but the python was the first confirmed case among wild snakes in Australia.
Writing in the Australian Veterinary Journal, researchers detailed their findings as well as two other novel fungal pathogens detected in skin samples from sick reptiles. All of the infections caused disfiguring skin lesions, and two of the three threats were not recorded among wild reptiles in Australia.
Australia is known to have the largest diversity of reptiles of any country. But climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species and urbanisation are all threatening that. Fungal infections are not usually an issue for warm-blooded animals, being unable to survive the higher body temperatures. But for cold-blooded animals such as snakes and other reptiles, they can be devastating.
Chytrid fungus has caused extinctions of frog species in places including Australia and reptiles face similar threats.
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